


Denial

by AllTheNamesIWantedWereUsed



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Death, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, I'm Sorry, M/M, Phone Calls & Telephones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 20:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10906824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTheNamesIWantedWereUsed/pseuds/AllTheNamesIWantedWereUsed
Summary: In which Peter Nureyev is in denial





	Denial

“Juno? Juno, can you hear me?” Peter Nureyev says, clutching at his comm like it's a lifeline. His normally pristine clothes are covered in soot  and ash, and he knows he reeks of smoke, but he doesn't care. 

 

“Yeah, I can hear you,” Juno coughs, through the receiver. 

 

“Find someplace safe, Juno. Help is on the way,” Peter commands, staring at the burning building in front of him.

 

“That's...not possible, Peter.” 

 

“What are you talking about?” Peter demands, panic threatening to choke him. Images dart through his mind: Juno, broken and bleeding, already dying-

 

“I'm stuck,” Juno gets out. “I'm stuck, Peter, and I think my leg’s broken.” 

 

Peter starts running towards the building, pushing through the crowd of people. “I'm coming in. What floor are you on?”

 

“No!” 

 

“What?” 

 

“Don't...don't come looking for me,” Juno pleads. “You'll die, I can barely see in here, there's so much smoke, you-” 

 

He breaks off in a fit of coughing, and it's pure torture to listen to it, to listen to Juno hacking and gasping for clean air. 

 

 _Damnitdamnitdamnit_ _no_. Peter will not lose Juno like this, he can't-

* * *

"I'm coming for you. What floor are you on?” Peter asks.

 

Juno struggles for air. It's hard to breathe, what with the thick black smoke and the pain coming from his broken leg.  “No, Peter.”

 

“What. Floor.” Peter's voice is shaking, and every word is choked.

 

“The Triad did this, Peter. They want me dead.” 

 

“We're just going to have to foil that plan, then, aren't we?  _ What floor are you on _ ?” Peter refuses to let him deflect. 

 

“I-” Another round of coughing seizes his lungs, and he feels like his head is going to burst-

* * *

 

“Juno!” Peter shouts, cursing his detective’s stubbornness. All he can hear is the horrible, dry coughing as Juno suffocates under a cloud of smoke and heat.

 

“Peter?” Juno rasps.

 

“Yes, Juno?”  _ Please tell me what floor you're on, please, Juno- _

 

“Take care of Rita for me, will you?” Juno requests.

 

Peter doesn't have the heart to tell him that Rita hasn't come out of the building yet. 

 

“I-I will.” 

 

“Thanks.” Juno draws a wheezy, ragged breath. “Take care of yourself too, okay?” 

 

“Juno, please, the floor you're on-”

 

“I know I've said it before, but...you really are the best thing that ever happened to me, Peter Nureyev,” Juno says, and his voice sounds dazed, like he's passing out, like he's losing oxygen-

 

And then the entire building crumbles in on itself. The line on the comm goes dead. People in the crowd scream and cry out, others, like Peter , stand stock still in horror and denial. “Juno?” he whispers into the disconnected comm. 

 

Silence. 

 

Frantically, he dials again. No one answers. 

No. No.  _ No.  _ Juno cannot be dead, this isn't happening, this can't be happening-

 

Juno Steel survived losing an eye, torture experiments, so many goddamn things, this is  _ not _ the way the detective should die.

 

Later, the thief will mourn. He will rage against the dying, dim light of Juno Steel’s life, and he will grieve. 

 

For now, though, he stands in front of a flaming building, denial and shock coursing through his veins. 

 

Later, he will evade the authorities, scout out the decimated structure. 

 

When he finds a charred trenchcoat, a still warm body, and an eyepatch on the sixth floor, then he will know, and denial will fade, to be replaced with anger and grief and all unholy emotions he has tried to lock away for so long. 

  
But for now, he will deny.

**Author's Note:**

> I am SO SORRY (Not sorry)
> 
> Comment/kudos, please!


End file.
